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December 30, 2008

Unfortunatly I had no matching plate for the dessert and while serving I was nervous because of the chocolate cake so all together looked liked a big mess. Besides I used new forms for the cakes that were not stable enough and part of the batter flow out. The mousse could have been more fluffy but it tasted fabulous and the rose-hibiscus ice cream was a dream!Ingredients:For the passionfruit mousse:6 passion fruits150 g cream cheese3 tablespoon powder sugar2 gelatine leaves1 tablespoon water75 ml heavy creamFor the rosa-hibiskus ice cream:375 ml milk100 ml Crème fraîche6 egg yolks100 g powder sugar50 ml hibiscus syrup2 tablespoon rose waterFor the chocolate cake:125 g butter30 g sugar125 g bittersweet chocolate2 eggs2 egg yolks30 g sugar12 g corn starchSmear passion fruit through a sieve so that you have about 200 ml juice at the end. Stir in cream cheese and sugar. Put gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes, after dissolve in 1 tablespoon hot water and whisk in to the cream cheese mixture. Let it cool until it starts to thicken on the sides of the bowl. Beat heavy cream and stir in, set it in the fridge for 2 hours.

For the ice cream heat milk and crème fraîche and let it cool. Whisk sugar with egg yolks and stir in the milk mixture and warm it until it thickens so that it covers a wooden spoon. Let it cool and stir in hibiscus syrup and rose water. Let the ice cream maker do the rest. For the choclate cake whisk butter with 30 g of sugar until fluffy. Stir in melted chocolate. Whisk eggs and egg yolks with the other portion of sugar and mix it with the butter-chocolate mixture. Bake for 7-8 minutes on 210°C.

I thought it would be nice to have something refreshing before the dessert, that is why I choose a tomato sorbet with warm tomato sauce, grissini, dried tomato and goat cheese with pistachios. Actually it is supposed to be a white tomato sorbet, but to me it is not that white as it should have been.

This course took me a lot of research: so many different informations and so difficult to decide. In my book about Italian Cuisine there is a recipe that calls for cheese and bacon. I was a bit shocked about that because if Rossini, then foie gras, truffel and madeira may not be missing! So I decided to go with the flow and just did it. For the toast under the filet I decided to bake my own bread, and luckily I have found a fantastic recipe on the Kochtopf. I did not manage to form the bread very well, but the taste after frying in butter is absolutely amazing!

Season meat with salt and pepper. Heat oil, and fry meat from both sides, set aside to the oven on 100°C for 10 minutes (depeds how you like it and how your oven works) add bacon, shallot and stew. Add veal stock, balsamic vinegar, madeira and cook for 10-13 minutes. Stir in parmesan, season with salt, pepper and truffle. Heat butter and fry toast from both sides.

In another saucepan heat butter add thyme and fry foie gras for 1 minute on both sides, season with salt and pepper.

I was curious about the mousse that turned out very aromatic and made a great match with the salad. I also served a slice of canard that I marinated in chardonnay with some rosemary for about an hour. To the salad I have added some red walnuts that taste pretty different than the normal walnuts, these are sweeter and somewhat less nutty.

Season with salt, pepper, majoram, thyme and cinnamon. Set it aside and pour chicken stock and portwein into the saucepan and reduce to half. Stir in gelatine and set aside to cool until it is lukewarm. Ground fried canard breast and after smear it through a sieve.

Stir in butter and the liquid with the gelatine. Beat heavy cream and fold it into the mixture. Season with salt, pepper and some portwein. Fill mousse in portions and let is stand for 2-3 hours in the fridge. For the salad chop shallot, salt, pepper add vinegar and let it stand for 30 minutes. Whisk in oil and pour it over the salad.

December 29, 2008

The biggest surprise of the seven courses: I never thought that this fruit relish is going to be such an explosion! Absolutely juicy, fresh, sweet but also sour and of course it softens the hotness of the chicken balls. Great combination!

For the fruit relish cut fruits in cubes. Melt sugar, pour vinegar on it and cook for 3 minutes, after pour it over the fruits. (You also can cook the fruits in the vinegar for 5-6 minutes.) Stir in avocado and chopped spearmint, season with lime juice and pepper. Let it stand for 2-3 hours in the fridge.

This soup is for sure an eye-catcher and deliciously coconutty with crispy coconut flakes covered king prawn but the kick is the horseradish foam. I suggest to cook the soup some hours before serving, because it tastes a lot more delicious.

Cut beetroot in pieces and roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes with a star anise. Heat butter, add chopped shallot and roasted beetroot. Cook in stock for 15 minutes, puree, add coconut milk and season with salt and pepper.

Salt prawns, cover with flour, egg and coconut flakes and deep fry in oil. For the horseradish foam cook milk and veal stock and reduce, add grated almond, crème fraîche, horseradish and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Mix until nice foamy and serve on top of the soup.

When I planned the Christmas Dinner I had to consider that my kitchen is extremly small. Without my pantry I would be lost. The kitchen fridge has a tiny freezer, that is why we have an extra freezer and a fridge in the pantry and my kitchen machine and steamer are also in there. So for this course I knew that I am going to need all the three cooking plates. In order to serve the second course also on time, I had to prepare a part of it while cooking the firstcourse, so I decided to steam the fish with djion mustard-parsley-lemon filling, that way I had a free cooking plate and on the other two I could cook the lentil and the sabayon.

For the sabayon cook vegetable stock together with the chardonnay, thyme, shallot and reduce half. Sieve, stir in dijon mustard. In another pot bring water to simmer. Whisk egg yolk frothy add chardonnay-dijon mustard liquid and whisk over steam for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Mix lemon juice, dijon mustard and chopped parsley and smear it on the fish, roll it up and steam it for 6-7 minutes.

December 28, 2008

In a few days I am going to publish my seven-course Christmas Dinner that took me 12 hours of cooking, plus let's say another 5 hours in three days for precooking. Until then I want to share those fabulous parmesan grissini by Giorgio Locatelli, that were also part of the dinner. These grissini are simply irresistible!

Melt butter, add milk and heat until it is lukewarm. Stir in yeast. Mix parmesan, salt, flour (I used 300 g bakers flour and 75 g Italien Tipo 00), pour in yeast mixture and knead a dough. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and stretch into a rectangle. Work your way over the entire surface of the dough making deep indentations with eight fingers at once. When the surface of the dough is covered with indentations, fold it in half turn it ninety degrees, stretch it out to an A4 sized rectangle and repeat the indentation making process again. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a wet kitchen towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. Repeat the dimpling and folding process and leave to rise in the covered bowl again for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 150°C. Cut the dough in half and roll each half out into a large rectangle about 30cm or more on its long side. Slice this rectangle of dough into 1cm wide strips.

Roll the strips one at a time on the work surface with your hands to form long thin sausages. Press down on one end to create a flattened spoon shape. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

December 23, 2008

Today it was time to prepare some more parts of my planned 7 course Christmas dinner. I cooked vegetable stock and made the decoration for the dessert: chocolate roses. I found a great tutorial in the Cake on the Brain blog. I never thought that would be so easy to model with chocolate and so much fun!

Heat oil and roast halved onion until golden brown. Add chopped veggies and let it stew for 20 minutes. Add wine and let it reduce. Add clove, thyme, parsley, peppercorn and water and cook for another 20 minutes. Sieve and it is ready to use, or freeze. It is important to know if you cook vegetable stock, do not cook it longer than 45 minutes.

December 18, 2008

Every year as the last cookies, I bake honey cookies, that are my dad's favourite. Of course there are still some cakes missing: the beigli and our favourite poppy bars, but these will be baked only later. To me these honey cookies are the most Christmasy for many reasons: the shapes, the smell and the tradition, because in the past trees were decorated with apples and such cookies, and when these are baked it always means, that soon our family is together.Ingredients: 250 g honey500 g flour100 g butter100 g sugar1 egg2 egg yolks1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon cinnamonsliced almond for decoration

Heat honey and butter, until honey is melted. Add the other ingredients and knead a dough. Roll out and with a cookie cutter cut in forms as you wish. Smear cookies with egg white and add sliced almond on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes on 180°C.

Among these honey cookies I also baked Rosa's yummy Pecan Sandies, that are totally yummy and go perfect with a cup of tea while watching that winter wonderland outside.

December 17, 2008

What a beautiful morning today! It is snowing again, hopefully we are going to have white Christmas this year. Among the vanilla stars, yesterday I baked some lemon cookies as well. I love the texture of the dough and it has a wonderful intense lemon taste.

Whisk egg yolks with sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy. Add lemon zest and juice, baking soda and whisk in ground almond, so that you get a not sticky dough. Roll out on ground almond and cut with a cookie cutter. Bake for 10 minutes on 170°C.

Actually I agreed with my mom that this year we will not bake many cookies, like we did last year, because then, after giving one bag of cookies after the other away we still had more than enough. It seems like that this year it is going to be quite like it was last year if not "worse". However I do not mind, after all only once in a year is Christmas! I simply can not resist when I read through my cookbooks, and always think: this is going to be the last one. Well, not quite but let's see those stars! To part of the dough I have added some chilli and sprinkled with black salt.

December 16, 2008

Yesterday afternoon I baked the next bunch of cookies with marzipan. Actually I am not so much a marzipan fan and I was sceptic that these cookies are going to be tasty. It was a great surprise! Of course I had to try one, and I confess I ended up eating one after the other until I noticed that soon one baking sheet is empty.

Mix all ingredients together and knead a dough. If it is too sticky knead in more powder sugar until you can roll it out. With a cookie cutter cut in forms you desire and bake for 10-12 minutes on 180°C.